microsoft / microsoft/winget-cli

Support for filtering packages on installer method

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#823 7 comments 78 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Area-Settings Interactive-Only-Installer Issue-Feature
Dominant language
C++
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Forks
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Avg merge
1d 11h
Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

Description

Some installers do not support a silent/unattended experience. WinGet should let users express a requirement or a preference for install modes (e.g., silent vs. interactive), configurable in settings and via command-line arguments, and honor it consistently across search, install, and import.

Behavior

Search

  • When a user requires silent, search results should omit packages whose manifests can't satisfy silent install.
  • Allow filtering results to include/exclude interactive-only packages.

Install

  • Honor the user's preferred install mode when the package supports it.
  • If the user requires a mode and it can't be respected for a package, inform the user rather than silently falling back.

Import

  • Respect the user's install-mode preferences when importing a set of packages.
  • If a required mode can't be respected for one or more packages, inform the user.

Notes

  • Should support both a preference (best-effort) and a hard requirement.
  • This capability is a prerequisite to allowing packages with only an interactive install mode into the community repository.

Consolidates #910.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by tracing how settings and command-line arguments reach the search, install, and import entry points. Define how preference versus requirement affects silent and interactive install modes, including unsupported packages. Done means all three flows consistently honor preferences and clearly report when a required mode cannot be respected.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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